Experiments in Reincarnation // ITP Thesis 2021

Experiments in Reincarnation is a sculptural exploration of transformation -- of bodies, of attachments, of scale. It began with a fascination: how do we define who we are over time? Our cells are constantly dying and regenerating; our memories are constantly growing, shrinking, and mutating; very little of what we associate with our names and bodies remains constant throughout our lives.

This fascination sprang from a seed planted many years ago. As a young person exposed to Hindu and Buddhist ideas, I grappled with the notion of reincarnation. I rejected the formulaic framing that the idea sometimes comes packaged in: if you follow the right prescribed actions in this life, you will become an “elevated” life form in your next cycle. If you don’t, you will be demoted.

But it didn’t have to be this crude. Religious language could be an abstraction for something more observable -- that the concept of “reincarnation,” rather than a consequence tied to religious rules, could be a metaphor for the driving forces of nature around us. Spiritual language could be poetry to science’s prose.

This project externalizes my understanding of the many ways we might observe reincarnation in the world around us. These sculptures have their own life cycles. They are made from biodegradable materials that can melt with heat and dissolve in water. Their color, derived from pH responsive pigments found in common fruits and vegetables, changes with their environments. The objects embedded within, whether melted down previous sculptures or ingredients like homemade yogurt, weave traces of their past within the new sculptures they create. The video projections of self-shot microscopy and archival family footage are the source of light that cause the pieces to fluoresce; they represent the animating energy that persists through life at all scales and in all embodied forms.

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